BioShock Infinite will tell a different tale every time you play it, director Ken Levine says.

Speaking to me during a phone interview last week, the BioShock creator said his upcoming shooter will feature significant choices—choices that have a significant impact on the way Infinite's story goes down.

"I don't wanna present it as sort of a BioWare level, radical reimagining of the universe that you can do by making story choices," he said, referring to the development studio behind story-heavy games like Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age: Origins. "But there are gonna be some changes."

Okay, I said. Can you give us an example?

"I'd rather not," Levine said, rather apologetically. "It's so surprising when it happens, so—I'd rather not explain. I'd rather people see it."

What Levine would tell me is that in contrast to the first BioShock, where you make your way into the underwater city of Rapture after it has already fallen apart. This time, you're there from the get-go.

"Here, [the player is] really coming in and they're the ones really getting the party started this time," he said, "whether they intend to or not. The world really erupts based upon them being there, not through anything they wanted to do, but as the nature of the situation."

The situation is that you're Booker DeWitt, an ex-Pinkerton agent who is charged with rescuing a girl named Elizabeth from the aerial city of Columbia. As you go through this city, Levine says things will really "erupt" as a result of your presence there.

"You get this feeling that you're sort of on this inevitable path to things just getting worse and worse and you're just trying to do the right thing," he said. "Not necessarily the heroic thing, but just—you're just trying to get out of this city, protect your own skin.